I am the Way - John 14:1-6

Maybe to comfort Peter who had just been told that he would thrice deny Jesus in the next few hours, Jesus tells his disciples, “Let not your  heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in my. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.” This does give the disciples the advantage of the eternal perspective. A tough time is ahead of them, and remembering that rewards and rest are coming to them will be helpful. It is a little bit discomfiting to imagine us down here suffering and Jesus playing architect in heaven, but I don’t think that that’s what he meant.

The concept of Jesus dying within the next 24 hours is still not sinking in for them and Thomas asks how they can know the way if they don’t know where He is going. Jesus answers, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” This is a pretty abstract statement, so it’s taken a long time for me to understand it. Jesus is the way, in that doing what He says is the path to get back to God. He is the truth in that all He speaks is true and he only teaches according to universal truths, it’s not just some made up way to control us; His commandments are the eternal, unalterable rules of happiness.
He is the life because he grants all who have been born resurrection, and he offer all those who follow Him eternal life. Without the atonement, none of us could have been saved. He is the only way back because He was the only one able to perform the atonement and because He did it, He is the only one who can satisfy the demands for justice against us and grant us mercy. Really it comes down to the fact that nothing else matters, no how educated you are, not what you believe or anything like that. What we do and say is incredibly important, but no actions will ever be able to save us, we must accept Jesus Christ as our Savior and repent to be saved.
The IM quotes Elder Lawrence E. Corbridge as teaching, “There is only one way to happiness and fulfillment. He is the Way. Every other way, any other way, whatever other way, is foolishness… We can either follow the Lord and be endowed with His power and have peace, light, strength, knowledge, confidence, love, and joy, or we can go some other way, any other way, whatever other way, and go it alone- without His support, without His power, without guidance, in darkness, turmoil, doubt, grief, and despair. And I ask, which way is easier?... There is only one way to happiness and fulfillment. Jesus Christ is the Way.” I like that he notes that following Christ brings with it an endowment, or a strengthening with peace and all those other positive attributes. Jesus gives us commandments so that we can live a happy life, then as we obey those commandments not only do we receive the blessings that come with living a life in harmony with universal truths, but He also gives us the power to keep doing what we’re doing. It’s not a “this is tough, well, see you later” thing, it’s very much a cycle of positive reinforcement.
The IM quotes Elder Quentin L. Cook as teaching, “At the time Joseph Smith received revelations and organized the Church, the vast majority of (Christian) churches taught that the Savior’s Atonement would not bring about the salvation of most of mankind. The common precept was that a few would be saved and the overwhelming majority would be doomed to endless tortures of the most awful and unspeakable intensity. The marvelous doctrine revealed to the Prophet Joseph unveiled to us a plan of salvation that is applicable to all mankind, including those who do not hear of Christ is this life, children who die before the age of accountability, ad those who have no understanding.” I listened to a program about temples yesterday and one of the points that Elder Holland made was that God has repeatedly said that He is no respecter of persons, so the only way for Him to be true to that statement would be for everyone that has ever lived to have an equal chance at hearing and accepting the gospel.
Now that I think about it, the concept of who goes to heaven and who goes to hell is very complicated among believers, to include Mormons. I know of a religion that believes that only like 144,000 people will be allowed into heaven, and I’m like, “well I’m out, I know for certain that there are 144,000 people through out the history of time who have been more righteous than me.” As I was reading Elder Cook’s comments about the plan of salvation being revealed to Joseph Smith for all to have the opportunity to be saved, I had another moment of “there’s no way that Joseph Smith is making this stuff up, even he’s not that generous.” Don’t get me wrong, he was a great guy, but to say that both the most innocent and the most evil person to ever live would have equal chances to be forgiven and saved is more than a human being can come up with. If Joseph Smith did invent the gospel and lie that everything came from angels, he would not have been humble enough to teach a gospel of complete inclusion and opportunity.
There are several verses that Jesus talks about His relationship with the Father. I had an interesting learning experience yesterday. I went to a temple dedication for a while before I got called in to work, and before I went I watched on the Mormon channel some Church discussions about temples and one of the major themes that kept coming up was vicarious works, even during the temple dedication. They said that Jesus performed the ultimate vicarious act during the atonement, he did for us what we can’t do for ourselves. One of the points someone made was that Jesus’ mortal ministry was a vicarious work for Heavenly Father. They said that the Savior came down as a representative for Heavenly Father and did everything so that we could know the Father through the Son. I thought that that was an interesting analogy.